Markets Fear Failure In U.S. Debt Talks

LONDON (AP) — Fears that talks to reduce the U.S. deficit will collapse added to existing worries about European debt to push global markets lower on Monday.

A special deficit-reduction supercommittee in Washington was expected to admit failure in its quest to agree on how to improve government finances by $1.2 trillion over the coming decade. The main hurdle in the bipartisan panel's negotiations was how much to raise in new taxes.

The panel's failure would trigger about $1 trillion over nine years in automatic across-the-board spending cuts that some investors fear might not be tuned well enough to sustain growth and create jobs.

The talks' expected collapse revived market fears that politicians — whether in the U.S. or Europe — are often unable to take the decisive action required to reduce debt during a difficult period of economic slowdown.

Spain on Sunday became the third European country in as many weeks — after Greece and Italy — to change its government because of discontent generated by the debt crisis. It dumped its ruling Socialists for the conservative leadership of Mariano Rajoy, who inherits an economy wracked by debt and nightmarish unemployment, which at more than 21 percent is the highest among the 17 nations that use the euro.

Rajoy must lower Spain's soaring borrowing costs with deficit-reducing measures while preventing an already moribund economy from heading into a double-dip recession.

The country's borrowing rates fell in early trading on Monday, suggesting investor relief at the outcome of the elections, but rose again as global market sentiment soured. The borrowing rates for other key countries, such as Italy, also increased slightly.

After Asia mostly closed lower, Wall Street was also set to lose ground. The Dow Jones industrial futures were down 1.2 percent at 11,621 and S&P 500 futures shed 1.5 percent at 1,195.20.

Besides news on the U.S. deficit deal, market sentiment in Europe will likely be influenced by data to be released later in the day on how much in government bonds the European Central Bank bought last week to keep down the borrowing rates of countries like Italy.

The ECB buys bonds in the open market in relatively small amounts to lower the bond yields from dangerous highs above 7 percent. Some governments would like the ECB to step up those purchases massively to fight the debt crisis, but Germany is against such a move, saying austerity measures are the only sustainable way to alleviate the debt market turmoil.

As an alternative to massive ECB bond-buying, some suggest that eurobonds — debt issued jointly by all euro nations — would be a key tool in calming the crisis. The European Commission will issue a report on Wednesday favoring such a solution, which is also strictly opposed by Germany, which worries about exposing its taxpayers to the bad debt of profligate countries.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo fell 0.3 percent to end at 8,348.27, its lowest closing since March 2009. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.4 percent to 18,225.85 and South Korea's Kospi dropped 1 percent to 1,820.03.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3 percent to 4,163. Mainland Chinese shares fell slightly, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index inching down less than 0.1 percent to 2,415.13, its lowest close in almost one month.

Stocks that are heavily dependent on exports to the West have come under pressure recently, said Linus Yip of Hong Kong-based First Shanghai Securities. "The market right now is still worried about future economic growth, the European debt problem," Yip said.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, who oversees trade and finance, said this weekend that the global economic situation is "extremely serious" and predicted the malaise is likely to be long term, state media reported.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down $1 at $96.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. The contract fell $1.41 to finish at $97.41 per barrel on the Nymex on Friday.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3462 from $1.3518 late Friday in New York. The dollar weakened to 76.79 yen from 76.97 yen.